I'm not always a big Pat Buchanan fan, but this was a nicely written summary imo. It is maddening how quickly we are apt to make the same mistakes. I certainly hope we don't end up at war with Iran. hootsbox, what do you think of the article? We've had discussions in the past about the Iraq war and I think you've admitted to it being ill advised. As a republican, are you hearing your party beat the drum for armed conflict with Iran?
As I have previously stated, I would have chosen a more covert type operation (drones, etc.) after Saadam was deposed (of his and his sons horrific crimes against the Kurds - WMDs I might add and that is fact not fiction). Unfortunately, Bill Clinton so gutted the covert intelligence operations we were left with a shell of an operation that was a shadow of the former days – especially after the cold war was over and we felt we “don’t have such a need for it” – is that why he let Bin Laden go after Sudan captured him? However, I do understand the need for some type of stability after the invasion as it is alluded to. We are all nice Monday morning quarterbacks after the fact, but we were NOT there and only speak from conjecture. As Teddy Roosevelt says, ""It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.".....Citizenship in a Republic,"...Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910 I was not there, was not in the room with the intelligence (of which all partisans - Democrat and Republican - including Bill Clinton before Bush) that seemed to point to WMD possessions. Of course, once you hit a munitions depot with a cruise missile, not much else it left or detectable (which is what we did before we ever went in on the ground). I did not hear the advice, and therefore, am totally unqualified as all who are making this post so far, to speak to the decision points that made the decision to stay and set up a democratic republic (which the longevity still remains to be seen unless you are some type of soothsayer). I do think that setting up some type of civil government was a good concept and that changing the educational system to be less biased against people of Western faiths and countries was an honorable endeavor given the disaster of 9-11-2001 and the subsequent potential threat (remember as many or more died in that event than in Pearl Harbor and that started our involvement in WWII which resulted in the following as is best documented: Civilians killed totaled from 38 to 55 million, including 13 to 20 million from war-related disease and famine. It is best estimated that the total military dead: from 22 to 25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war, deaths and countless other injuries). It seems our memories (or the current revisionist professors at most major universities) are very short lived, and we put too much stock in the internet (everything on the internet is true don't you know) and in the bloviating of the opinionates (whether left or right). Until we are actually sitting in those seats at the moment of time, we are not even qualified to make a sound judgment! Let's hope history is more favorable in the long run.
I listened to an interview with Richard Perle this morning on NPR. It made my skin crawl. The propaganda was transparent in 2003, and Perle was pushing for it long before 2001. He simply refuses to own it.
Wow. My paraphrasing of the last moments of the interview: NPR: Given the 100,000 wounded or dead Iraqi's and the 5000 dead Americans, was it worth it? Perle: That's an unfair question, you can't look back and ask "was it the right decision". WHAT? Of course you can! Not only can you, you MUST. That is how you learn from mistakes and therefore don't repeat them. My skin is crawling too. Shameful.